Americans have a penchant for ignoring state and local elections. Choosing not to vote can have serious consequences. In case you missed it, this Tuesday, November 2nd is an election day. No, this isn’t a presidential election or the Congressional midterm election that will take place next year. On Tuesday…

The 2021–2022 school year was supposed to be a return to “normal.” Then, the delta variant hit. When I first set out to write a story about American teachers and the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2021, my aim was to accurately depict what life was like for teachers who worked…

Would school be in-person, remote, or hybrid? It was anybody’s guess. For teachers, the end of summer is always a hectic time. Teachers can be found setting up their classrooms, writing lessons plans, attending staff meetings, and stocking up on school supplies. The start of the 2020–2021 school year did…

Big Bird: 1, Ted Cruz: 0 Like so many Twitter feuds, this one started with a tweet. From a bird. Big Bird, to be precise. Last week, Big Bird’s Twitter account posted a tweet saying that the beloved Sesame Street character had been “vaccinated” against COVID-19. To any sane person…

After the Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe lost in Virginia’s hotly contested gubernatorial race, the political punditry stumbled on a new explanation: it’s the teachers’ fault. The day after an election is always a frenetic time for political journalists. It’s a period to perform an autopsy of sorts. What happened in…

Gun violence is not an inevitable quirk in American society. We are choosing to live like this. Or, more accurately, choosing to die like this. On the morning of October 6th Texas high school student, Tervil Oigo, frantically texted his mother Stella, “Mom there’s a shooting. Mom. Help.” It’s a…

At the beginning of the 2020–2021 school year, teachers had to grapple with the inevitability that they would be exposed to COVID-19 at work. Children would come to school sick. They always did. Teachers did not expect this to change, even amid a raging pandemic. All of which begs the…

One of the most pressing concerns for teachers re-entering the classroom at the start of the 2020 school year was safety. What did it mean to “safely” reopen schools? Depends on who you asked. Or when you asked this question. According to the then-acting Trump administration, schools should have shoved…

As the GOP overruns state legislatures with a barrage of punitive voter suppression bills and legislation attacking transgender children, they also haven’t forgotten their favorite pet project: criminalizing abortion. …